Preface

Fundamentals of Numerical Weather Prediction is intended to introduce students to current techniques for developing numerical weather prediction models. It is based on lecture notes for the course I taught on numerical weather prediction at the École Nationale de la Météorologie in the 1990s.

Numerical weather prediction consists of automatically performing meteorological forecasts and involves implementing a series of clearly identified processes: data collection and control, determination of the initial state of the atmosphere (analysis), computation of the final state at a given range (forecast), computation of the characteristic weather parameters at the local scale, tailoring and dissemination of results. This book does not purport to describe exhaustively all the techniques used to implement all of these processes in practice but focuses instead on the forecasting process proper. This consists in determining, with the help of numerical computation techniques, the solutions of a system of equations describing the behaviour of the atmosphere. The choice of an appropriate system of equations and of the series of numerical calculations to be performed to determine approximate solutions for this system defines what is commonly called a numerical prediction model. This basic tool is used both for weather forecasting and for climate simulation.